I'm a professional scavenger making a living selling curbside garbage. This blog details my finds and sales. It also acts as an archive for things beautiful and historic that would otherwise have been destroyed.

Expo’s [sic]

I looked through the rest of the photos / slides from last week and found a bunch from the 1976 Montreal Olympics. They’re pretty neat! Whoever took these went to the Olympics pretty often, as there are photos from several events including the opening ceremony and even some kind of public showing of the construction of Olympics stadium. Below is a small sample of what was included.

Surprisingly there don’t seem to be many amateur Olympics slides on eBay. I saw a listing of 31 Greg Louganis slides that sold for 32 USD, so maybe I can get around a dollar each for these as well. That would be nice, as I probably have around two hundred in all!

I also found one box of slides from a late 1970s Expos game. There’s some neat shots here of Gary Carter, Tony Perez, and Warren Cromartie, the latter of which now leads a group trying to bring baseball back to Montreal. I also can’t find any amateur slides of Expos games on eBay, but I expect these might worth around a dollar a piece.

It’s been a good few weeks for photos. I found a box on the curb earlier this week with some very cool photos inside, many of which date back to the turn of the century. I even saved a couple of tintypes – those don’t turn up in the trash very often. I’ll share some of the cooler photos in an upcoming post!

I focused a lot on the McGill area during move-out last week, but I’ll wait until my next post (or the one after that) to show you what I found there. Lots of good stuff, I’ll say that much.

It’s probably just a proximity bias, but Friday is the day that makes me realize what how little of my Montreal’s garbage I’m actually able to pick. A huge region near me (the Plateau east of St-Denis, Rosemont east of Iberville all the way to Pie-X, Centre-Sud to I’m not even sure how far, all of which are connected) has a Friday morning collection, as do other areas not too far away. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people on the same day – I could go picking from around 7am-3pm and I’d still be unable to see it all. Not that I have the energy to do that anyways, but most of my other routes are self-limiting – once you’re done, you’re done.

Anyways, I happened upon these boxes while cruising around the Centre-Sud area (near Sherbrooke & Fullum) last Friday.

Inside was some great stuff. One box held some mid century lighting, including this nice “eyeball” desk lamp; …

… and a cool ceiling fixture. Sorry for the crappy pic, it’s hard to capture this kind of thing well without a legit studio! Both pieces were in good condition and looked great after being cleaned and polished with a micro-fibre cloth. I expect they’ll sell for a nice price, I’m not sure about this piece but I saw a similar desk lamp that sold on eBay for 75$.

I also saved a vintage Christmas tree. The fact that it comes with the original box probably improves its value. I won’t bother listing it anywhere before November, but it should eventually earn me some $$.

Here’s what the tree looks like! It might not actually be the same tree on the box (I think that one is just green) but it’s close enough.

I’m always picking up vintage luggage, even if it’s not in particularly good condition. Oftentimes they’re at least attractive or sturdy enough to hold yard sale stuff. This one however is in very nice shape and it’d be a shame to use it as such. Maybe I’ll keep it myself for home storage, or try to sell it for a premium on Kijiji. It was made by Dominion Luggage in Toronto.

This Belkin FM radio transmitter is probably my most useful recent find. I found another one a while back that I hadn’t gotten around to testing, but this one is probably better anyways. Now I can listed to podcasts in the car!

I found two nice vintage JBL speakers in Rosemont. They look like they need some work, but JBL is a good brand and I expect they’re worth money even just for the cabs.

I also saved a pair of mid-century looking tables in the Plateau. I was on bike at the time, but went home so I could pick them up with the car (and also because I was carrying around 20 pounds of vintage files on my back and was getting tired).

I’ve been doing that Thursday evening Rosemont run pretty regularly, in large part because there’s no real competition for that time slot. It’s also been producing some interesting stuff, like this box of vintage sewing bric-a-brac, an old tin, and a neat vintage “souvenir of Canada” pocketknife. I can probably get around 20$ for the latter. Just FYI, these are two photos spliced together, so the pocketknife is not the same size as the tin. It might look a little confusing!

That same spot also gave me a couple of stuffed monkeys, one of which looks hand-made. I’m a sucker for anything hand-made. Both are in nice condition, and you can expect them to appear in my next yard sale.

That’s all for now! There’s lots more to show you, but it’ll have to wait until next time.

I live in Minnesota and am surprised by how wasteful Montrealers seem to be.I discovered your blog a few months ago and am shocked by how many good finds you make.I always thought Americans were the most wasteful people in the world.But Montrealers seem to be alike.I am of Swedish descent and in Sweden they throw out far less stuff.They give tax credits to people for repairing old appliances and broken washing machines.
My daughter is going to study in Montreal this August as an exchange student at university.She read your blog and has promised to scavenge one night per week once she gets there during nonexam periods for fun.
You can only save so much in a city of over 3 million people.But you are doing a great job.I hope more Montrealers start throwing out less.

I think we’re probably about average (at least for North America) in terms of wasting things, I just do a good job of showcasing what’s thrown out! I do encourage her to try scavenging while here, the kids in the student neighbourhoods throw out a lot of stuff, and going out to see what’s on the curb is a great way to get some exercise.

I think most Montrealers put out stuff that can be used again knowing that it will be scavenged. Putting it out on the curb saves them from making a kijiji ad that says “free stuff”. My neighbours put out a ton of great stuff when they moved and within about 5 minutes, there was a woman standing guard over it on her cell phone calling her husband to bring the truck! LOL there was only enough time for each of the folks on our block to pick a chair or two. So Montrealers aren’t necessarily being wasteful; they are being nice to say, here’s my junk, you are welcome to it 🙂

I think this is true sometimes but most of the stuff I find isn’t put out in a way that would encourage people to take it. Most of my best finds come from black trash bags, and if someone puts black trash bags on the curb without a “free” sign anywhere to be seen I don’t think they can reasonably expect someone to find it. The only explanation in that case is indifference.

Martin,congratulations for saving those wonderful,wonderful photo slides and those stuffed monkeys.I have also picked up more than a dozen stuffed monkeys and plush bears from the trash over the last three years while walking or biking.I give half of them to my sister and keep many for my apartment.I am happy that you finally saved stuffed animals.You and I are kindred spirits and of the same age bracket.I was born in 1984.
Those tables you saved were wonderful too.I see a lot of nice coffee tables and small end tables thrown out along with some good storage benches and stools.You should salvage more of these small pieces of furniture.

For furniture (and things in general) I take what I think I can get a bit of money for and leave the rest for others. I can’t take it all unfortunately, and even furniture (for example) that might be worth 10-20$ isn’t always worth the effort considering how much I already have to deal with, not to mention the fact that it takes up a lot of storage space. Same with stuffed animals, some are nice but I don’t think they’re profitable enough to take most of the time (especially considering that they often need to be cleaned before they’re good to sell, or even give away). There’s just so much decent stuff out there that I really have to make sure to filter out the “okay” stuff and focus as much as possible on the “good” stuff, lest I drive myself insane by filling my life with junk.

I really enjoy you blog!
I would think the pics/slides of Bruce Jenner would sell very well on eBay since he’s fairly current in the entertainment news. I suggest you make sure to use both Bruce and Caitlyn Jenner in the title.

From my experience museums will most often offer tax credits. That might be okay at this point to be honest, but it’s easier for me to just sell them on eBay (as opposed to trying find and contact random institutions to see if they’re interested). The slides are pretty cool, but there were lots of photos taken of the Olympics and I don’t think they warrant putting extra effort into.

It is pretty amazing what some consider garbage and others consider treasures or some kind of way of living. Cool and great finds. Cheers! BTW Could I use two of your pictures for an article on my blog. The one that I can kind of look at you when you found a desk lamp and the one with the toys. In fact it will be two articles/two posts if you allow me to have them. Have a nice start of the week.

There is a woman in Chicago – Mom the ebayer and takes video of herself dumpster and garbage can diving. Unbelievable stuff. I am shocked at how much brand new stuff in the package she finds including a Northface jacket and Football jersey with price tags still on. I think the US beats Canada in wastefulness watching her footage. I cannot believe people do not donate their castoffs.